06 TPE Part I - Chapter 1-converted

The main ideas from this information are: - To succeed, one must believe in their abilities and serve their calling. - Finding passion and purpose is crucial for launching a successful business. - It is important to understand oneself and lead with introspection. - Building a successful business requires providing unmatched services and products. - Excuses are just fear-based defense mechanisms, and one should not let them hinder their entrepreneurial journey. - Age is not a barrier to starting a business. Chapter 1, Nature's Calling To succeed, we must first believe that we can. Michael Korda. Two great warriors are about to fight. One of the warriors volunteered because of his undying love for his country. The other was simply paid handsomely to fight. Which one would you bet on? Always bet on the individual who is serving his calling, not the guy who's doing it for the money. It is the person who is serving his purpose and fulfilling his heart's desire who will see his business through the good times and the bad. Those that are following their path will relentlessly march forward during the ups and downs, even as others give up to pursue something else. They will be there when the paid guy walks out. If you try to get rich by doing the next big thing, but it isn't your passion, the competitor who really is passionate about it will eat you up and spit you out. Passion begets persistence, and persistence begets success. Answer the urge. For you to launch a dominant business, you must first find what you thirst for. This took me years to discover. When I started out, I had this belief that entrepreneurs should do what they know, not what they want. I knew computers and liked working on them, so I launched a business related to that. But I didn't love computers. It was my vocation, not my passion. My first two businesses were successful, but not because I was passionate about technology. I didn't eat, sleep, and breathe tech, but I loved entrepreneurialism. I could talk about business all day, read every magazine, attend every seminar, and still my thirst would not be quenched. It took me a few years to figure out what was sitting right under my nose the entire time, that I loved launching businesses. Once I came to the realization that it is the birthing and maturing of a business that I love, I knew the path my future would follow. It doesn't have to take years to discover what really gets you jazzed. The key is to reflect and take the time now, rather than figure it out through trial and error. What would you volunteer to do simply because of your love for it? What activities bring you the most happiness, energy, and satisfaction? What makes you lose track of time, complete tasks almost effortlessly, and come out even more energized? When you are talking with friends, what is the one subject that you can just go on and on and on about until they're rolling their eyes? Answer these questions and you've found your heart's desire. And when you've found your insatiable thirst, your passion, you have taken the most important step to launching a company that will excel. Perhaps you have had a fleeting thought of starting a business, or maybe you are on fire with ideas and ready to jump in full swing. Either way, you need to get started by stopping. No, that's not a typo. The best response to a waterfall of what-if dreams is a deep, thought-provoking breath. A successful launch is more about you and your beliefs than anything else. Committing to a business without intimately knowing yourself is a fool's dream. Going all in on a bad hand is a stupid move, and so is jumping feet first into business without knowing the cards you're holding. To get started at launching your company, or to clean up a mediocre start, you must begin by discovering yourself. You need to understand and acknowledge your heart's desire, your mindset, and beliefs. You need to lead with introspective thought. You need to learn all about what you're all about. Just for a minute, if there were no limits to what is possible, what would you envision your entrepreneurial company providing you? The first thing that pops into almost everyone's mind is financial independence. I agree. I totally agree. But there is more, isn't there? What if building your business made you feel emotionally satisfied, totally happy? What if your business made a difference? What if you woke up every morning excited to work? What if people loved your company? What if the world heralded what you did and happily consumed what you had to offer? Owning a business is not about working your ass off for the sake of trying to squeeze out a living. It is not about making tons of money at the expense of losing tons of life. It is about maximizing life, bettering your life, and the lives of others, which, not so ironically, fattens your purse. The greatest example of work-your-ass-off business ownership came from the quintessential entrepreneur himself, Sam Walton, founder of Walmart. Walton started a company based upon a simple dream and went on to become one of the richest men in the world. The lesson? I blew it. Those are the words Walton reportedly voiced from his deathbed. By his own measures, he was a failure, a billionaire who barely knew his youngest child and was married to a woman who stayed with him for reasons short of a fulfilling relationship. What final words would you like to utter? I hope they are words steeped with feelings of contentment, words that say that you lived life to the fullest, pushed beyond your limits, and built a company that you are proud of both for how much it accomplished and for how much it made. If this is the type of success you want, you can have it. It all starts and ends with you. It doesn't start with where the market is headed. It doesn't start with the latest and greatest trends. It doesn't even start with what you believe the customers want. Your business starts with you. Yesterday's financially fat companies were able to market their way out of a crap product. If they ran enough late-night television ads and made big, albeit false, claims in the magazines, they were guaranteed tons of customers. Disappointed customers, but customers nonetheless. That was then, and this is now. Today's successful businesses are growing because they are truly great. They are providing unmatched services and products, and the word is getting out virally. No longer can you count on a marketing budget alone to bring loads of customers. Today you need to provide unmatched services and products. The marketing is done virally at summer barbecues, in internet forums, and on perpetual blocks. It's that simple. And for you to provide the best that you imaginably can, it needs to come from both your head and your heart. When your company comes from your soul, when your company is all about you, it becomes a formidable force. Years ago, a major corporation invited me to speak to a group of about 40 marketing specialists that sold an insurance product and were trying to break into the small business market. They wanted to learn how to speak to the entrepreneur. The presentation was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., but we couldn't get started until 9.20 because everyone was late. I started by asking them who woke up that morning excited to come to work. The few who raised their hands clearly did it for political posturing, not out of sincerity. Then I asked who loved their job so much that they came in an hour early to work, not because they had to, but because they wanted to. All of them scoffed at me. I then explained that for this meeting I had arrived at 7 a.m. just to make sure I found the building and was ready to go. I then had breakfast next door and walked in 20 minutes early to set up. In this one example, I have explained the difference between an entrepreneur driven by passion and someone who just has a job. When we love what we do, we do it to our heart's content and we naturally excel. I arrived at that presentation early not because I needed to, but because I wanted to. I love entrepreneurialism and the opportunity to discuss it drives me to be ready to roll day and night. Obliterate all the excuses, except for one. Excuses are like assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink. I don't know who came up with that quotation, but I have a feeling I would really like that guy. Excuses are a great mechanism to apply logic to our fears. They are simply the machinations we go through to defend our inner fears. I have heard and experienced them all and they are all BS. All that is, except one, but I'll save that one for last. The economy is not strong enough to start a business. Everyone is experiencing the same economy as you are, so you are on equal footing. If the economy is in a recession, buyers may slow down their activity, but competitors will fall by the wayside. A weak economy is like a forest fire. It kills off many of the plants, but the seeds that take hold now have the most room to grow as the forest comes back to life. A weak economy is often the best time to start. Entrepreneurship is very risky. Anything that you go into without preparation and knowledge is risky, so go in prepared. The funny thing is, you are already mostly prepared and don't even know it. If you listen to your inner emotion, your calling, you will naturally be led down a path where you already have strength. You probably have mastered many of the critical learning steps and you'll pick up all the new stuff like a sponge. A job with a big company is far more secure. Tell that to the folks who got fired from Enron, Arthur Anderson, Bear Stearns, or any of the other hundreds of large companies that have collapsed or downsized. When you work for someone else, you can be fired at a whim. If he screws up, you pay. When you work for yourself, you can't get fired. The only limit to your success is you. I'm too old to start a company. So what are you going to do about it? Wait until you're younger? There is no time like the present. Life has yet to offer a rewind or a redo. Don't live with regrets. Get started now, regardless of your age. The self-discovery process you will go through creating your own new company is well worth it. Plus, you can leave a little inheritance to the next generation. I am too young to start a company. What? Did you know that you can legally start and incorporate your own business at any age? You can literally start your own company before you can legally work for someone else. One of my friends, Cameron Johnson, started his first business at age 7 and incorporated his first company by age 12. Why don't you be the first to start a company at age 6? No matter how old or how young you are, start today. I won't make enough money. A recent study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers N-A-C-E stated that the average starting salary for an accounting major is $46,292. Not bad. If you took that job and received an annual raise of 10% each year for the next 10 years, you would be making $120,069. Not bad at all. Now, if you start your own company, your annual salary every year will average $50,000, according to World Wide Learn. Not bad either. If you run your company well and you like to give yourself a 25% raise every year, I give myself an average of a 50% raise every year, on your 10th anniversary, you'll be earning $465,661. Now that's sweet. I don't have the proper education. If you have a college degree to succeed, you are sorely mistaken. I've met with PhDs from Harvard and dropouts from high school. Their entrepreneurial successes were directly tied to their beliefs, desire, passion, and thirst to learn through the School of Hard Knocks. Your scholastic pedigree has basically no influence on your success. None. I don't have enough money to start. The fact that you have no money, or very little, simply means you need to apply your head right from the get-go. There is a reason they say necessity is the mother of invention. Money covers up problems and weaknesses. Without money, you've got to bring your A-game every day. Lack of funds forces you to optimize everywhere and grow the right way. The competition is too strong. She was right. If you think the competition can do a better job than you ever can, then you aren't properly positioned to exploit your strengths. Find an angle to apply your strengths, your innate talents, and your passion in a way that no one else is doing, or no one else is doing well. No one will buy my product or service. Good thing you caught that now, but it's not an excuse not to launch a company. I am not ready. I agree. You're not. You never will be. This excuse is simply a combination of all the others. When I ask people why they think they're not ready, they resort to some semblance of one of the other excuses listed. They're all nonsense. Go time is now. I'm sure you can think of many other creative excuses not to start a business. You need to put these rationalizations aside. Look ahead and take action now. We rarely regret the things we did in life when we have followed our passion and taken risks. Too often, though, we regret the things we didn't do. If your heart is calling you to take action, don't use any one of these excuses to squash your desire. There is one reason not to start a business. It is simply to get rich quick. Greed is not becoming and does not have lasting results. No matter when you are presented with barrelfuls of money, you do pay for them, even if you collect your money prior to any effort, like a lottery winner, for example. Nature still has an uncanny way of making you earn it. If you're lucky, your windfall may be earned through the rapid mastery of a new financial discipline. But all too often, the earnings come in the form of despair, disaster, and bankruptcy. Just look at what happens to some big lottery winners. It isn't pretty. Jack Whitaker sure wished he'd torn his lotto ticket up. At TPE, he had plugged away for years building a construction company that grossed $16 million a year. But after Jack won $315 million, his life became total hell. He lost friends, family, and had 400 legal claims against him. I'm not trying to talk doom and gloom here. I'm just trying to point out that getting rich quickly rarely happens. It's not satisfying and in some cases has disastrous results. Quick money is very alluring. It is rare to meet someone who isn't dying to win the lottery or receive some windfall of cash. Most people, of course, never get a dime wishing for a big payout. It is a shame that the majority of us waste even a second of life so that something will be handed to us instead of using our talents and passion to make it ourselves. Money is an amplifier of habits. If you have bad habits and receive lots of money, you will simply repeat your bad habits more often. If your habits are good, it will amplify those good behaviors. Money allows us to be more of who we already are. So we better have a strong mindset and have established good habits before we get gobs of money. If you have achieved a strong, focused, happy mind and are executing on good habits, money will come easily and money will build more money and good habits will grow. Happiness too. That is the healthy way to get rich. Launch a company to get rich right, not to get rich quick. It works. One day still hasn't come. One day I will launch a company. One day I will be this. One day I will do that. Would someone please tell me what the date is for one day? Because it sure as hell isn't posted anywhere on my calendar. It is now or never. One day is a dream. If you are going to launch your first company, put an actual date on one day. Is it one month from now, six months, a year? Tell everyone close to you the day you will be opening the doors of your new company. Then back calculate all the things that you need to do back to today, back to this moment right now and start taking action. Now. Maybe it is setting up a phone line or establishing an LLC or taking a class. Maybe it is setting up a phone line right now and don't stop. Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Tell your biggest, smelliest, hairiest, zit-ridden friend that you need him to keep you accountable to your goal of starting your first company. Promise him that if you miss this goal, you will let your friends take a picture of you kissing his naked keister and allow it to be posted all over the internet. If that doesn't get you in gear, I don't know what will. I find it laughable. The amount of time experts spend debating the entrepreneurial nature versus nurture argument. Let's sell this once and for all. It's nature. No one can teach you to have entrepreneurial passion. You can't learn how to grow a burning, unquenchable desire for business. No one can train your attitude or make you intelligent. You better have the entrepreneurial bug in you or you'll struggle to have even a modicum of success. You can water the soil all you want, but you won't grow a tree unless there is a seed first. If you have it naturally, then it can be nurtured into something great. There's an important thing to note about nature. It doesn't always present itself at birth or even in the early years. The urge for entrepreneurialism beats out of your chest when you're 20 years old. Other people don't feel it until they're collecting Social Security. Me? It took four cold ones at the local bar. Regardless of when the urge presents itself, when you feel it, go for it. Nature's calling. Answer it. Take action now. Small steps lead to giant gains. You can't eat in under a half hour, so you have no excuse. 1. What's your heart's desire? What gets you totally juiced up, so much so that you think you could be happily doing it every day? Write it down in as much detail as possible. Pay attention to what you really get out of it. Sometimes we think we want something tangible, when really we want to feel a certain way or experience something over and over again. 2. Make a list of every single excuse you have used to put off starting a business. If you're already operating a business, write down other little lies you tell yourself that keep you from your heart's desire. 3. Debunk your list of excuses. Write down every reason why your excuse doesn't ring true. If you're really feeling pumped, convert your excuse into a positive statement about your abilities. Thank you.